The couple dishes to ET on how their controversial 'Bachelor' finale brought them closer together.
Just over a year after Arie Luyendyk Jr.'s controversial Bachelor finale, he's married with a baby on the way!
Luyendyk and Lauren Burnham (whom he proposed to on After the Final Rose) tied the knot in Hawaii in January, and in just a couple of months, they'll welcome a baby girl into the world. The pair opened up about becoming parents while speaking with ET's Lauren Zima at IndyCar and Acura's Grand Prix of Long Beach on Saturday.
"We're really, really excited to meet her. It's been a long time coming," Burnham shared. "I've been pregnant for seven-ish months, so it's about time to get my body back and to meet our baby. We're really happy."
"I think it's cool, you know? We're experiencing being new parents, so we're on all the apps, learning about the development of the baby, and it's just been kind of an awesome ride so far," Luyendyk added. "I can't wait for her to come."
The couple picked out a name for their baby girl on Christmas, but are waiting until she's born to share what it is. "It was a name we kind of tweaked into something unique," Burnham teased. "We don't really know anybody who's named that."
Luyendyk and Burnham announced her pregnancy in October. "The first sign that I had, or Arie had, was that I started craving meatballs for breakfast, and I'm usually a very light eater. I don't like a lot of red meat," the blonde beauty explained how they knew their family was expanding. She said Luyendyk was "convinced" she was pregnant, even before she was.
"[She didn't accept it until] the sixth test we bought," the race car driver joked.
"Once my belly started growing," she cracked.
With the pregnancy news coming months before their wedding, Burnham admitted that her focus has been on becoming a mom over being a newlywed. "We're OK with that," she said.
"Yeah, as soon as we found out that Lauren was pregnant, I think our focus completely shifted," Luyendyk agreed. "We were still excited about the wedding, but we were like, 'This is obviously a bigger moment for us.' We knew that we were going to be together for the rest of our lives, and the wedding was just more a celebration of that. Being parents is just a huge step."
The parents-to-be are excited, however, to spend some alone time together on their babymoon, which will kick off this week in Bermuda. Luyendyk also confessed that it feels a "little" good to be able to prove his critics wrong -- he was ready to be a father and a husband.
"It wasn't ever about proving anyone wrong for us, it was our life," Burnham expressed.
"[It was] about doing what we wanted," Luyendyk insisted.
The Bachelor couple -- who recently filmed an episode of House Hunters International -- said they are open to appearing on more reality TV, and will "always" be a part of Bachelor Nation.
"I think the biggest thing is always relying on each other over anyone else," Burnham said of how they are keeping their relationship strong. "We're very honest and open about everything we're feeling. And we've been able to be there for each other throughout tough times and really fun times too."
"I think it really brought us together, I guess, the controversial ending of our season," Luyendyk admitted. "We communicated really well and I think that's the biggest thing in our relationship -- we talk it out. If anything is ever frustrating, we lay it out there right away. It doesn't fester."
The twosome has yet to discuss whether their children could follow in Luyendyk's racing footsteps -- or whether he'll retire from the sport.
"We'll see when I get there," Burnham said.
"Racing is obviously my passion and I've been doing it forever. Last year, we did probably nine or 10 weekends, so we traveled a lot, but it will slow down a little bit," Luyendyk guessed. "I think having a baby at home, I'm going to want to be home. So, this year I'm only taking on four race weekends so far. So, it's a pretty light schedule."
See more on Luyendyk and Burnham in the video below, and join ET's Bachelor Nation Facebook group here.
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